The Asociación de Clubs de Baloncesto (ACB) (Template:Lang-en), commonly known as the Liga ACB, is the pre-eminent men's professional basketballleague in Spain. It was founded in 1956 with the name of Liga Nacional. The league changed its name to the current one in 1983. The league is rated as one of the three "A" level European national domestic leagues in the ULEB League Rankings system. The ACB League is considered by many to be one of the best and most elite basketball leagues in Europe and even in the whole world.

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Other competitions

Liga championship rules

Each team has to play all the other teams in its division twice, one at home and one away. This means that in Liga ACB the regular league ends after all teams play 34 matches.

Like many other leagues in continental Europe, the Liga ACB takes a winter break once each team has played half of its scheduled matches. One feature of the league that may be unusual to North American observers is that the two halves of the season are played in the same order—that is, the order of each team's first-half fixtures is repeated in the second half of the season. This is normal in Spanish sports; it is also used by La Liga in association football.

At the end of the league, the eight best teams start a play-off, playing the regular season champion with the 8th and so on. There are three rounds with five matches on each, and the winner of the final round is the champion of the ACB. This is similar to the NBA playoffs, but shorter.

Arena standards

Currently, ACB clubs must have home arenas that seat at least 5,000 people.